Published on: 06/01/2015

The OSWCA has been diligently trying to rectify the current locate situation our sector is facing through a variety of avenues.

Firstly, the OSWCA has worked diligently towards the successful appointment of Mr. Tony Di Pede, as one of the Excavator Representative on the Ontario One Call Board.

Secondly, the OSWCA advocated strongly in successfully appointing Mr. Vince Bellissimo on the following positions:

• Compliance Committee of the One Call Board;

• Canadian Construction Association (CCA) Representative to the Canadian; and, Common Ground Alliance (CCGA).

Thirdly, the OSWCA has been communicating with One Call on every locate issue submitted to the OSWCA offices. To date, we have been involved in hundreds of separate locate issues as a means to heighten the attention on our sector and attempt to facilitate a positive outcome to these submissions.

Fourthly, after submitting a letter on October 6, 2014, the OSWCA was granted our meeting request on December 15, 2014 with Senior Policy Advisors with the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services (MGCS). This ministry oversees the One Call legislation and through this meeting the OSWCA was attempting to highlight the difficulties that our sector has experienced to date.

At this meeting, the OSWCA highlighted the lengthy and ridiculous wait times our sector has had to endure just so that we could do our required projects. Although the Ontario One Call legislation clearly mandates that once contacted, utility owners, via their locate providers, have five days to provide valid markings and maps of what underground infrastructure exists in the requested locate area - this timeline is not being adhered too. The work in our sector has been significantly held up as a result of valid locates taking upwards of a month to receive. The worst cases have contractors waiting beyond the 60 day mark. This is simply unacceptable.

In addition to this situation, the OSWCA is now facing a pilot project being attempted by one utility owner in the London and Sarnia areas wherein our contractors would be charged for remarks and refreshes. The OSWCA has taken the position at the MGCS that this action is clearly in direct contravention of the intention of the Act and that the utility owner is simply trying to set some sort of precedence in this area, to then be replicated throughout the province.

The OSWCA was informed by the MGCS that they had met with One Call in the weeks prior to our meeting and that they were communicated to and/or given the impression that everything relating to One Call was proceeding as it should. We rectified this misinformation immediately.

The OSWCA requested the following primary items to be addressed by the MGCS:

• Enforce the mandated 5-day turnaround with respects to locates;

• Undertake a jurisdictional study of other USA jurisdictions that have a successful One Call system, as a means of replicating their enforcement system to better our turnaround time; and,

• Define the parameters of a locate and deliver a locate to the contractor in three dimensions; length, width and most importantly, depth.

At this juncture, the OSWCA now needs real world contractor examples to further our cause. We request that you submit actual examples with all the pertinent details where the One Call system has failed and affected you financially. The details could include the following:

• Liquidated damages;

• Downtimes;

• Scheduling – your company and other contractors dependent on your completion;

• Any associated penalties; and,

• Other

This information will be compiled and submitted in a document to the MGCS highlighting the real problem that exists. It will serve as evidence to the MGCS and to One Call that the system needs to be addressed.

Please submit your detailed information directly to Giovanni Cautillo at giovanni.cautillo@oswca.org. The more detail you provide the better we can illustrate that One Call needs to be revamped and overhauled. The system is far from perfect but the OSWCA believes that through the assistance of the member’s examples that we can make a clear and undeniable case where those changes need to occur.

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